‘Goal is to deliver creativity at speed of imagination’: Adobe executive on Generative AI

One reason why Generative AI is widely discussed is that many fear it could affect creative jobs. However, Sinnathamby says that it is the explosion in the demand for content that is not only visually appealing but also highly differentiated that is putting extra pressure on content creators. “We are helping creatives learn how to manage the increased demand for content in a way that is fast, controlled, precise, high-quality, and still enables them to deliver what they need to do,” he said.

Chandra Sinnathamby, Head, APAC, Document Cloud Solutions, Adobe. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/The Indian Express)

That is why Adobe continues to push Generative AI features across its core suite of apps and target early adopters from the advertising, marketing, and creator communities.

“The creatives want to spend more time being creative and less time doing mundane tasks. So that’s what we are looking to do… it’s to free them up,” Sinnathamby said.

But as the capabilities of Generative AI grow and become more mainstream, Sinnathamby says its “creative-friendly” AI tools will benefit all individuals, not just seasoned illustrators but also students or freelancers who want to express themselves in creative ways. “All of them will benefit the most, but they all have very different needs in what they want to do. We are helping them to do more with the right tools,” he explained.

Adobe’s MAX conference, which kicked off Tuesday, provided a preview of how the top software player envisions the role of generative artificial intelligence in the creative space. The maker of Photoshop and InDesign released three new Gen AI models under its Firefly AI brand as well as added AI capabilities across Adobe Creative Cloud apps and Adobe Express.

The company earlier this year launched a generative AI tool called Firefly, which allows users to edit images simply through typed commands. Since Firefly was first released in March, users have generated over three billion images using the model.

The flurry of AI announcements at this year’s MAX conference comes at a time when the creative community and the art world are divided on how to respond to image generators such as Midjourney and DALL·E 2 (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/The Indian Express)

Its Firefly Image 2 model, an updated version of the text-to-image tool, is designed to offer higher-quality renditions, boasting enhanced photographic quality for high-frequency details, higher resolutions, more vivid colours, and improved human renderings. In particular, the Generative Match feature allows users to upload or select an image they would like the new generation to resemble.

The flurry of AI announcements at this year’s MAX conference comes at a time when the creative community and the art world are divided on how to respond to image generators such as Midjourney and DALL·E 2 that can produce fascinating visuals from aged photographs but have also raised questions about ownership and authorship. These tools are trained on data troves and prior artworks, from which the AI learns how to create artistic outputs. But in Adobe’s case, the company has rights and control over images from its Stock catalogue compared to engines trained on content across the web.

“We have built the technology from the ground up to be commercially safe,” Sinnathamby responded when asked about the company addressing the legal implications of using Generative AI in relation to copyright infringement, ownership of AI-generated works, and unlicensed content in training data.

“We use our own assets that are IP-free or where the IP has expired,” he continued. “We also ensure that everything we build from an AI perspective meets our AI principles of transparency, accountability, and authenticity.”

The writer is in Los Angeles on the invite of Adobe.